


Denial

by Winkemoji



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Misgendering, Non-Binary phobia, non-binary Pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 10:59:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winkemoji/pseuds/Winkemoji
Summary: Pidge comes out to the team as non-binary. Their reaction is less than ideal.





	Denial

**Author's Note:**

> So, in a lot of non-binary Pidge fics, the team just automatically accepts Pidge's gender identity. Honestly, I have trouble believing the entire team team would be perfectly okay with this, so I decided to write a fic where they aren't so accepting. As a result, they may come across as being a little mean.

Something was wrong. Or at least, Pidge felt like something was wrong. When Pidge was pretending to be a boy, it made sense that she would feel wrong whenever someone referred to her with “he” or “him”. But now that team Voltron knew she was a girl and referred to her with female pronouns, she still felt that strange feeling of discomfort. At first, it wasn’t bad enough that she felt the need to talk to someone about it. Unfortunately, the feeling had only gotten worse.

“Hey, uh, Pidge? You’ve kind of been staring in the same direction for the past 5 minutes.” Hunk’s words broke Pidge out of her thoughts. She realized she had been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn’t even touched her food.

“I was just… thinking about stuff,” Pidge replied.

“Is something wrong?” Shiro asked, concerned.

“No, not really.”

While Pidge did want to tell them how she was feeling, she figured they might not understand. And besides, this wasn’t really a conversation to have right in the morning. Luckily, they didn’t press her any further, and continued their small talk.

* * *

 

It was a few days later that Pidge discovered there were more than two genders. Team Voltron had received a distress signal from a nearby planet and had rushed to their aid. Along the way, Allura had explained that a significant portion of these aliens identified as a third gender, and that they used “xe” and “xem” pronouns. She told the team that using the wrong pronouns was a deep offense and that everyone should be respectful. The team mostly didn’t have anything specific to say about this, besides Lance complaining that it was annoying have to keep up with other beings’ customs. Shiro told him to be polite and not offend anyone. The operation mostly went without any trouble, although Pidge couldn’t get the whole third gender thing out of her head. She had heard that some people identified as non-binary back on earth, but had never really thought about it seriously. She thought that was just something people did on the internet. But now, knowing that there was a whole society that embraced this concept had her re evaluating her opinions. She imagined how it would feel being referred to with gender neutral pronouns. It felt so… right. She- no, _they_ had never felt better in their life. Pidge finally understood why they didn’t feel right being called a girl. It was because they weren’t a girl at all! That’s why Pidge had never been into girly things, and why Pidge didn’t want to wear dresses, and why they didn’t want to be called a boy either. They were neither of those things. Now, it was time to tell the team.

* * *

 

Pidge had gathered the team, telling them there was something important they needed to know. Pidge felt a little guilty after seeing the worried look on some of their faces, but they wanted to tell all of them at once. Pidge stood in front of the room, fidgeting nervously.

“Pidge? What did you want to tell us?” Keith said.

“It’s not anything bad, is it?” Lance asked.

“No! It’s not bad! Actually, I’d say it’s good news. At least for me,” Pidge said.

“Well, what is it?”

“I’m… not a girl.”

The room went silent. It was Keith who broke the silence.

“Wait, so are you like… a trans guy? Or were you pretending to be a girl?” Keith asked.

“Wait, wasn’t Pidge pretending to be a boy?!? This is a little confusing. I’m gonna need some clarification,” Hunk said.

Pidge realized they had said it wrong.

“No! I’m not a guy either!”

Keith rolled his eyes.

“What, your one of those ‘non-binary’ people?” Keith said, almost condescendingly.

“Yes! Now you get it!”

The relief from Keith’s statement was enough to make Pidge not realize the tone of Keith’s voice.

“Well, I don’t get it! What does non-binary mean? Isn’t Pidge a girl?” Lance said.

“Non-binary means you don’t identify as either gender,” Shiro replied helpfully.

“Either gender? There are more than two genders! Remember those aliens?” Pidge said angrily.

“Uh, Pidge, I think you let those aliens rub of on you way too much. You’re human, aren’t you? And humans can only be male or female,” Lance said.

“Lance actually has a point for once. If you identify as a guy, I’m cool with that, but you can’t just make up a third gender because you don’t adhere to gender roles. It’s okay to be both feminine and masculine.”

“It’s not because I’m a tomboy! I just… imagined how it would feel to be referred to as ‘them’ or ‘they’ and felt so right for the first time in my life!”

“’Them’? ‘They’? What, do you identify as multiple people now?” Hunk asked.

“No! The stupid English language just doesn’t have gender neutral pronouns!”

Pidge felt so frustrated, they were almost on the verge of tears. Why couldn’t the team accept them? Gender was just a social construct! Was that so hard to understand? They just wanted to run back into the closet and never come out.

“Guys, calm down! If Pidge wants to be non-binary, we need to respect that. We should all refer to them with their preferred pronouns, regardless of your opinions on being non-binary,” Shiro said.

Pidge wanted to correct Shiro and say that they didn’t want to be non-binary, they were non-binary, but refrained. They knew the team would listen to Shiro.

“While I was under the impression humans could only be male or female, it is not uncommon for other species to have other genders. You should all respect Pidge’s decision. You are team members, and something like this shouldn’t cause discord among you,” Allura added.

The team grumbled in response, but reluctantly agreed. Pidge knew deep down most of them didn’t really respect their gender identity, but at least Allura did. Plus, Shiro did have mostly the right idea. Still, it hurt when Keith or Lance would purposely refer to Pidge as a girl then claim it was an accident. Pidge didn’t mind when it was genuinely a mistake, like Hunk would often make, but they weren’t stupid and knew the team thought they were just confused. Keith sometimes would pull Pidge aside and ‘helpfully’ explain that gender was based on biology and that brains were only either male or female. Lance would ask Pidge if ‘she’ had gotten over ‘her’ faze yet. Maybe with time, they would accept them. Maybe.


End file.
